by Paul Teague
They were sore and bruised, but as both raised their heads from the floor, they were astonished to find they were still alive. Dillon was dazed, he’d taken quite a blow to his head, but the decaying corpse in the corner had helped to soften the impact.
It was Wiz who regained his focus first. The Centuria would have heard the crash in the lift shaft, they’d know that’s where they were hiding. They had to exit fast.
‘Dillon, get up, we need to run!’
Dillon tried to force himself up, but he was unsteady and shaken by the fall.
‘We have to go now!’ Wiz shouted at him. They were still in darkness, but he reactivated the WristCom to give them some light. There was blood on Dillon’s forehead. Wiz hoped his pallor was just a consequence of the shock. He’d barely had time to register what had happened. He had thought he would be carrying Dillon’s severed torso on his shoulders when he’d crashed to the ground.
Wiz had some fast thinking to do. The Centuria must have heard the elevator crashing to the ground but which floors did they have covered? He thought he and Dillon must be below ground. Most elevators had a pit beneath them. Were they in the pit? That should give them a head start. The Centuria would at least be at ground floor level.
Wiz used the WristCom light, frantically hunting for a floor hatch. Most elevator cars had one, but he couldn’t locate it.
‘Damn it!’ he cursed. He could hear activity above them. The Centuria had heard the sounds in the lift shaft and were prising open the doors on the levels above them to figure out what was going on. It wouldn’t take them long to work it out.
Wiz wondered if using the WristCom would be of any use, but he didn’t think he’d have time to send a message. He got no further than activating the device before the sound of Centuria overhead forced him to take action. They had to get out of the lift shaft.
‘Any ideas, Dillon? There should be a hatch in here somewhere.’
‘Try underneath the dead body,’ Dillon suggested. ‘It might be there.’
Wiz retched at the thought of having to push his hands into the stinking, fetid corpse, but if he couldn’t force himself to do it they’d both be joining whoever it was who’d already lost his life there.
Wiz pushed his hands through the fleshy waste, scratching to find the floor. There was activity in the shaft above them, and a shot fired. Wiz scrambled harder. His fingers found the vinyl of the floor covering underneath the body. He managed to get traction on the edges. He pulled at it as hard as he could. No movement. He tugged at it again. The weight of the corpse was too great for him to lift it.
‘Dillon, help me, we need to move this body.’
Dillon was beginning to regain his wits, but wasn’t keen to assist Wiz. It took another bullet ricocheting in the lift shaft above them to force him into action. Between them, they scraped the mess of flesh and bones away from the hatch in the floor. Dillon felt something solid and thought it was a rib at first. It turned out to be a small knife. It was sharp and deadly. He handed it to Wiz.
‘Nice, we might need that later,’ he said. There was a small hatch with a metal loop concealed within the floor. After some pulling, it lifted at last. It needed to be twisted as there was a locking device built in. It was stiff after so many years, but Wiz still managed to prise it open. He peered down into the darkness below. He could hear the sound of rats scuttling to get out of the way. They must have known what was coming next.
‘We’ve got to jump down there, Dillon. I hope you don’t hate rats as much as your brother.’
Fortunately, Dillon’s fear was not rats, though he wasn’t particularly happy about jumping into a shallow black pit filled with live vermin and sheared cables. Wiz went first, as he figured that being taller would help. He gently lowered himself out of the tiny floor hatch and dropped to the ground. He knew it was fairly close from the sound of the rats, but he couldn’t judge how far in the darkness. As it turned out, it was far enough to twist his ankle. Wiz cursed his bad luck, the injury would slow them down.
Dillon passed down the bag of tech and a rat brushed Wiz’s hand as he carefully placed it out of the way. Wiz decided that worse things had happened that day. He helped Dillon down from the elevator car, it was a much bigger drop for him. When Dillon was safely back on the ground, Wiz used the light from the WristCom to check out the area. There was a steel ladder leading up out of the far side of the pit and cautiously, quietly they climbed up it. Wiz’s ankle gave a painful twinge as he placed it on the ground. That was going to be a problem.
As far as Wiz could tell, they were in a basement, below ground floor level. It wouldn’t take the Centuria long to be swarming the area. He could hear the screens’ audio at the front of the building, the trial must have reached an exciting stage because the commentary sounded frenetic.
‘We need to find an exit out the back,’ Wiz said. ‘Let’s head over this way.’ Behind them they heard a door opening. It required some force, it sounded like something was blocking it. There was a commotion, it was the Centuria. They were coming for them.
‘Keep moving,’ Wiz whispered, struggling to take his full weight on his foot. They were in an underground storage area which was all but empty so they could move freely. The Centuria activity was increasing at the door, they were trying to sort out lighting. Even the Centuria weren’t stupid enough to enter an enclosed pitch black room without checking what was in there first.
Wiz was running out of ideas on where to go. It had to be in the opposite direction to the Centuria, but there was no guarantee there would be a way out when they got there. He was beginning to panic. The first light went on at the far end of the storage area. They were out of range of the beam, but it wouldn’t take long until they could be seen.
‘We’re going to get cornered if we’re not careful,’ Dillon whispered. Wiz knew that, but there was nowhere to go, they had to keep pushing forward. Wiz counted six lights, attached to weapons, following them through the darkness. The Centuria were cautious, perhaps expecting an ambush. All Wiz and Dillon had between them was a bag of tech and a small knife, they’d be unable to put up any resistance.
‘We’re in a corner,’ whispered Wiz. ‘Damn it, we’re in a corner. Can you see any way out, a door or a window light?’
‘I can’t see anything,’ Dillon’s voice came out of the darkness. ‘They’re getting nearer, Wiz. They’re going to find us.’
There was nowhere left to go and no place to hide. They were trapped. It was only a matter of time before they’d join Jena in the hands of Fortrillium.
Fury
Damien Hunter was furious and exhilarated at the same time. He’d had to intervene rapidly when he saw what was happening in The Grid, but the disappearance of Joe Parsons and Lucy Slater meant there was hope. Events were quickening now. He had a feel for drama – Hunter knew how to create it and how to read it.
Where had they gone? They’d disappeared into thin air. He’d contacted the Gridders – they hadn’t a clue what had happened, it was not of their doing. Hunter had been so busy barking orders over his WristCom, he feared he was losing his grip at one point. He got the live screen feeds killed first of all, then demanded to know what was going on. He was monitoring events in The Grid via his own console, and he saw Delman’s intervention. It was unprecedented that the President should get involved in a trial. Justice was in the remit of Fortrillium to deliver, and Damien Hunter was the man in charge.
He’d heard Delman’s warning. What had forced his hand to make him reach out directly to Joe and Lucy? Damien Hunter considered the stories about Delman. Supposedly, he was the only person ever to have got out of The Grid. How had he done it? Had Parsons and Slater discovered his secret? How had they passed through the exit when the other Justice Seeker had been killed instantly by the red beam? The thought of there being a way out of The City was intoxicating to Hunter. But there was danger there too – Miron Panko had been killed trying to exit The Grid.
Hunter was anxious not to
miss his chance. He would have to declare against the President. If he did it too soon, Delman would kill him and his family. Too late and he’d miss his chance.
He could feel things coming to a head. He’d spent his early evening torturing Mitchell Cranshaw – how good that had felt. It had served as a release to Hunter; he drank in the sensations of power and control. Mitchell had put up a feeble resistance – he’d revealed everything Hunter needed to know. Hannah James was arrested immediately on hearing Mitchell’s revelations and a team of Centuria dispatched to Talya Slater’s house confirmed she was nowhere to be found. She had vanished into thin air.
Word had also reached him that evening of Max Penner’s arrest. That one had taken some digging, but a fingernail removed from Mitchell’s left hand had made him squeal enough to help Hunter make the connection. Mitchell didn’t have Max’s name, but when Mitchell revealed that Talya’s source was somebody she’d met on her tour of Fortrillium’s prison facilities, it was easy enough for him to piece together.
Mitchell had also handed him Jena Parsons, her son, Dillon, and Shen Li, the one they called Wiz. He’d been frustrated to hear that two of them had escaped in The Climbs, but Joe Parsons’ mother was the perfect addition to The Grid.
He’d ordered that they all be prepared for immediate inclusion in the trial. They’d been rushed through Psych-Eval and readied for their debut on the screens. Hunter had also thrown in the Centuria traitor, Julia Levett, for good measure. The viewing audiences loved to see a Centuria perish in The Grid. It made the fools believe there really was some sort of justice in The City.
There was no doubt about it, the trial was shaping up to be the best ever. He’d be relying on that, and when his moment came he’d need to be agile. There would only be one opportunity to take out Delman, but Damien Hunter would be ready. If the residents of The City were glued to the screens, nobody would be watching when he made his move. He was waiting for Delman to step out of the darkness, it had to come soon.
He’d monitored the conversations between the President and the person on the other side of the wall, and he was more convinced than ever that this was Catharsis. He believed it would be connected with some pivotal event for the residents of The City … but what?
Hunter was running blind and he knew it. The pages of The Pact referring to Catharsis had been torn out. Delman had gained an early advantage. But he didn’t know that Hunter was monitoring him, he had no idea there was someone breathing down his neck.
With Teanna Schaelles on his side, he would make a formidable adversary. She had a burning hate for Delman too, but she was without a history. He was unable to find the usual information on her in the Fortrillium database. She had no Gen-ID, the same as the President. It was probably because Teanna was part of his inner circle, but she intrigued him nevertheless.
Damien Hunter had lined up his soldiers ready for the final battle. He didn’t yet know when and where the fight would take place, but he’d drawn up his war plan.
His enemies were in The Grid, they’d be sacrificed one by one. The Gridders were under new instructions to make the gameplay as powerful and compelling as possible. He wanted the watching crowds to be aghast at what they were seeing. As each traitor died, so would any chance of rebellion or resistance when he seized control of The City from Delman.
Teanna would monitor Delman’s movements. Their plan was for her to copy the pages relating to Catharsis from The Pact. It was out on Delman’s desk all the time now, it should be easy for her to capture an image on her WristCom. Delman trusted her, he would never think her capable of such deception.
Unknown to the President, Damien Hunter was now monitoring all communications with the mystery person on the other side of the wall. No conversation would go unheard. Delman had lost his anonymity.
Hunter was ready, there were just a few loose threads for him to tie up. Where Parsons and Slater had gone was troubling him greatly, and not even the Gridders could throw any light on that one. It was an unknown area, a function at The Core that nobody had any knowledge of. Max Penner had been of no use, he’d just confirmed what everybody at Fortrillium knew already. The bots performed maintenance tasks which were pre-programmed, nobody got to see what they were up to in The Grid. It appeared that this bot had malfunctioned and performed a maintenance check when it should have made its way back to Fortrillium.
None of that rang true to Hunter, but he couldn’t find any evidence to show otherwise. Had Delman been controlling the bot? He thought it unlikely. But who would have known about the exit at The Core of The Grid? The answer was directly under his nose, but he failed to see it. He didn’t believe Max Penner could possibly have orchestrated such a scheme. He also didn’t know about the WristCom that had been smuggled inside The Grid.
There was another thing troubling him too. He’d thought he had Talya Slater exactly where he needed her. She’d been destined to join her daughter in The Grid after her short tribunal the following morning. Not only had she broken the laws of The City, Hunter now had sufficient evidence to prove she’d been colluding with the Fortrillium operative, Max Penner.
Hannah James had also been working with Talya. He’d need to be a bit more careful about how that particular traitorous activity was presented on the screens, but from a Law Lord point of view he’d caught her. Only he hadn’t quite succeeded, she’d slipped through his fingers and disappeared.
Still, he had that one under control too. The Centuria, Julia Levett, had been only too happy to strike a deal when he’d threatened her family members. No torture had been necessary. She’d been willing to give what information she had about her conspirator friends, Leo Bachus and Jody Carn, though it was only of limited use to him. They’d vanished into thin air, like Talya Slater, rats scuttling away into dark alleys.
It was the information she’d feed to him from inside The Grid that would be invaluable. All of the protagonists were there and she’d win their trust. She’d also be within reach of the exit at The Core. If Delman made a run for it, Levett would stop him. Levett was armed and equipped with a WristCom. He’d promised to spare her life and the lives of her family if she worked with him. What choice did she have? Damien Hunter was adept at making offers nobody could refuse.
Part of him felt smug at having set everything up so carefully. There was nowhere Delman could turn without word getting back to him. But there was still the uncertainty over Joe Parsons and Talya Slater and her daughter; they were proving troublesome and difficult to kill. Perhaps he should have worked with Talya. Would it have been better to team up rather than fight each other?
It was too late to change that now. Hunter was committed to his chosen course of action. He’d learn everything he needed to know about Catharsis, quash any hope of rebellion within The City, set up Delman for an almighty fall and then take The City as his own and reclaim his family. He’d let Delman bargain for his life to win back his family, but then he’d just kill him anyway.
Damien Hunter could see the final battle coming, the storm clouds were gathering. There were one or two annoyances still to resolve, but he could almost taste the power. Soon The City would be his to rule, he’d be reunited with his family and there would be nothing that could stop him.
Rampage
President Josh Delman had wondered if things were beginning to slip away from him when he saw Joe Parsons and Lucy Slater leave The Grid. He’d been the only person in The City ever to enter and exit via that gateway, with the exception of Teanna Schaelles and a few others who’d made the journey with him under heavy sedation.
He’d been watching on his live video stream, but was grateful Damien Hunter had had the presence of mind to cut the feed to the public screens. There would be riots if the residents of The City had seen their escape. But it meant that Hunter had seen exactly what he had seen. Would he know what had happened? It was unlikely, but he couldn’t rely on that. Hunter was a danger to him, he’d caught a glimpse of a secret that only Delman knew.
The President had tried to prevent the exit. He knew straight away that he would have to step out of the shadows to try to stop Joe and Lucy leaving The Grid. It was the desperate effort of a man who was fighting to preserve the one advantage he still had. He’d had to appear via a holographic image – that was not normally his way of communicating, but he was President and if he wanted to do it he would. He’d made a last appeal to Parsons and Slater not to exit The Grid. They’d ignored him. In doing so, they’d forced his hand. They’d exposed him to Damien Hunter, and he was vulnerable now. Delman could kill Hunter’s family at the press of a button. He’d taken the precaution of activating the switch-off sequence in the Umbilica. It would just take the press of the remote activator in his pocket to shut down their life-support systems. If there was a confrontation coming, that would help to focus Hunter’s mind.
There had been one last chance that Parsons and Slater might not make it out of The Grid. He’d prayed that the BioSweep would take their lives. But Joe and Lucy were the children of Matt Parsons and Tom Slater, so of course they passed through unscathed. They were clear to exit The Grid just as Delman was, the same as Teanna. They were special. There weren’t many of them, but they were all linked by something unique.
When the Justice Seeker Miron Panko had fled to the exit, he’d been caught by the scan. Delman knew Damien Hunter would have seen that on his private feed, it would unnerve him. It was the one good thing about those recent events – at least Hunter understood that it wasn’t just as simple as walking out of that place.
Parsons and Slater were a threat to him now they’d discovered there was something outside. He’d have to kill them when he too left The City, he couldn’t allow them to survive. He’d lined it all up when he’d exited The Grid with Teanna all those years ago.